Iowa Central launches new search tool

Iowa Central Community College is pleased to announce that it has launched Career Coach, a free online tool that allows students and community members to explore potential careers.

Career Coach is designed to connect Iowa Central’s programs with reliable, local data for more than 800 careers in Iowa Central’s area. This is a great asset for our current students as well as prospective students and community members. Career Coach can assist high school students in helping them to determine which career is suitable for them.

One can also visit any of Iowa Central’s Academic Program pages where one will see the Career Coach icon. You can click on the icon to take you to the Career Coach’s website. A tutorial video is available on the site as well.

Through a simple keyword search, students and any visitor to the college’s website can learn about the employment prospects of careers they want to research. The real-time information is customized to the college’s geographic region and includes detailed wage estimates and up-to-date job postings associated with any career. Users are directed to the college’s programs when searching for specific jobs.

If a career doesn’t look like the right fit, individuals can search for similar jobs and see the largest skill gaps to fill to move to that career. They can also search for careers based on the college’s top training programs – or the program or major they are interested in.

Career Coach includes a built-in resume builder to help students and jobseekers quickly and efficiently put together an updated resume with key skills and job experience highlighted.

Iowa Central’s Career Services has been overseeing the implementation of Career Coach. The goal is to utilize this tool in a number of ways. For one, Career Coach will be available for students who are undecided in which career they would like to pursue. The student will be able to take an assessment then based off the assessment, Career Coach will identify which careers are better suited for that student. The student will then be able to search the identified careers to be better informed about wages, job potentials in the area, as well as having a better understanding of what that career entails and the level of education required for that career. At that point, an advisor or admission representative can work with the student to determine which academic courses or training need to be obtained.

Students who are currently in one of Iowa Central’s programs can utilize Career Coach to search for current job openings or look for job openings related to that program, while at the same time research current wages. With the resume builder in Career Coach, the student can develop their resume to submit along with their application for employment.

The tool is fun to just get into and search all the different careers and information.

This work-force solution is funded in part by the IHUM Consortium which is 100% financed through a $15,000,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. IHUM offers resources to the public specifically targeting those eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers, unemployed/underemployed Iowans and U.S. veterans.

A portion of the TAA grant amount was also awarded to Iowa Central to develop a state of the art simulation training center. Iowa Central has partnered with UnityPoint – Trinity Regional Medical Center in the development of a simulation training center. Iowa Central’s Simulation Center will be located at UnityPoint – Trinity Regional Medical Center. This will be an eight-bed simulation center with two classrooms equipped with advance technology. The center is currently under construction with the goal to have open and running by January 2016. The overall goal of the simulation center is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care as well as patient outcomes within our area by increasing the training of health care professionals and students in the clinical setting.

Iowa Central Community College is excited about all the opportunities the TAA grant has provided for this area. We look forward to sharing this information as well as providing these services for our community and area.

Trina Staton is dean of health Sciences at Iowa Central Community College.